Phantom Raspberry Blower: Part 2

Actor, writer and director Lee Moone joins Tyler this week to talk about the history of Spike Milligan's The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town and how he brought it to the stage in 2015 with 'Guest Phantoms' Jon Culshaw, Danny Baker and John Challis.  Following on from last week's chat with Joel Morris, Lee and Tyler look at the genesis of the original script and dig a bit deeper into its intended purpose: to be a one hour television special for Milligan, Sellers and Secombe that never came off. They talk about its subsequent seventies versions with Ronnie Barker solo and then, more famously, as part of The Two Ronnies. Lee tells Tyler how challenging it was adapting the script for the stage production. The biggest obstacle to its success would have been the non-cooperation of Norma Farnes, Milligan's agent, but thankfully she was supportive of the project and gave it her blessing. A major turning point was enlisting the services of Dirk Maggs as director and with him on board it all began to come together. Lee explains how it could have gone on with an extended series of shows but various factors conspired to prevent this happening - however, Lee is hoping to bring the show back. It's a great conversation with a really interesting guy and we wish Lee all the best in his endeavours to revive the show and keep alive the memory of The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town!